Midland, MI

 

The 8th annual Boulevard Lounge Tournament was completed over the weekend with the Jarvis Gamblers taking the ISC half of the tournament, and the Michigan Twisters capturing the ISC II portion.

 

Many thanks to Al Doran for covering the tournament live from the park via both Facebook and Al's Fastball - his game summaries have been posted to the link to the tournament on the front page of his site.

 

ISC World Tournament Qualifer

**  Jarvis defeated Argentina to win the tournament

**  Midland Explorers earn and accept WT berth as highest finishing US East Team

**  Paul Koert of Jarvis named Most Valuable Pitcher

**  Gustavo Guerinerri of Argentina named Most Valuable Hitter

 

ISC II Tournament of Champions Qualifer

**  Michigan Twisters defeated Bridgeport to win the tournament

**  Twisters (highest finishing US East team) and Bridgeport (highest finishing non-US East team) have the first right of acceptance for berths to the ISC II tournament

**  Rick Engle of the Twisters named Most Valuable Pitcher

**  Jason Hoisington of the Twisters named Most Valuable Hitter.

 

The Explorers Booster Club is fortunate to have a strong staff for the entire weekend to make the tournament a sucess - Thanks to the following:

**  Paul Barnetson from Orillia, Ontario who served as the tournament director

**  Joe Squires from Midland, Michigan was the UIC, bringing in a great group of ISC umpires

**  Lee Isenhart from Midland who was the ISC Rep

**  Paul, Joe and Lee served as the tournament committee for any gameplay decisions that needed to be made

**  Sports Junction (Art Tolfree and David Bedford) provided the tournament plaques and MVP Pullovers

**  Nicole from Bay City Western was our trainer for the weekend and provided great support to the teams who needed it.

**  Scott Montalbano of Midland Parks and Rec and his crew at Emerson were great to work with.

** Kathy Peariso of the Midland Special Olympics and coach of the Midland Dawgs brought a great group of players out to the field on Saturday for an exhibition game (separate report to follow).

** Ken Hackmeister and Larry Fisher of the ISC for coming out to consult and discuss 2010 with the Explorers Booster Club and Host Committee.

 

Al has put a couple updates out about Tim Murphy, pitcher for the Duncan (IN) Outlaws, who was hit in the head on Saturday night with a line drive.  Tim stayed Monday night at the hospital in Midland, but was looking to go home today.  I've heard from the Duncan manager, Matt Miller, that Tim and his family are very grateful for all the support and wishes from the softball community. 

 

Kyle